Is there a word which means to take pleasure in the misfortune of another when previously that misfortune was inflicted on you by that other person?

I won't describe here (in public) the particular circumstances in which I find myself looking for such a word, instead please enjoy this example from Three Men In A Boat.

Rather an amusing thing happened while
dressing that morning. I was very
cold when I got back into the boat,
and, in my hurry to get my shirt on, I
accidentally jerked it into the water.
It made me awfully wild, especially as
George burst out laughing. I could
not see anything to laugh at, and I
told George so, and he only laughed
the more. I never saw a man laugh so
much. I quite lost my temper with him
at last, and I pointed out to him what
a drivelling maniac of an imbecile
idiot he was; but he only roared the
louder. And then, just as I was
landing the shirt, I noticed that it
was not my shirt at all, but George’s,
which I had mistaken for mine;
whereupon the humour of the thing
struck me for the first time, and I
began to laugh. And the more I looked
from George’s wet shirt to George,
roaring with laughter, the more I was
amused, and I laughed so much that I
had to let the shirt fall back into
the water again.

Do you mean a word for pleasure derived from revenge?
–
b.rothFeb 2 '11 at 14:56

1

@Bruno Almost, but in the quoted example no revenge is taken (until the shirt drops again)
–
Ed GuinessFeb 2 '11 at 15:25

Schadenfreude is a German word. It is used among English speakers mainly out of amusement that the Germans would bother to make a word for such a thing. If you are looking for similar words, you really should be asking German speakers (deutch.stackexchage.com ?)
–
T.E.D.Aug 19 '11 at 13:29

5 Answers
5

Did you mean avenged? I've never heard of 'revenged' as the adjective.
–
MitchSep 28 '11 at 18:21

@Mitch: No. Avenged has several inapplicable implications. I don't know what to tell you about the fact that you haven't seen revenged in this usage other than "sooner or later you will".
–
chaosSep 28 '11 at 22:58

@Jasper Great point. Here I've always thought the derivation of the word was the same as dessert but evidently that word comes from the French desservir "to clear the table" whereas desert in the sense of punishment/reward comes from Old French deservir "to deserve"
–
ghoppeFeb 2 '11 at 16:03

We have a Japanese popular saying, 'the other's agony (trouble) is my own pleasure,' which I think exactly fits to the word shadenfreude. We also have another Japanese proverb, 'Misfortune (unhappiness) of others tastes (sweet) like honey'.